


Close Quarters

by Danudane



Category: The Order: 1886
Genre: Claustrophobia, Gen, Hurt/Comfort, Trapped
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-05-11
Updated: 2015-05-11
Packaged: 2018-03-30 01:31:30
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,745
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3918289
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Danudane/pseuds/Danudane
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Based on a prompt from a friend. Gray and Isabeau get trapped in a collapsed area.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Close Quarters

**Author's Note:**

  * For [EKthered](https://archiveofourown.org/users/EKthered/gifts).



> “Grayson is claustrophobic and gets stuck in a collapsed area with Isabeau, who’s never seen him that way (and helps him breathe until rescue).”

Whitechapel. It was always Whitechapel.

More reports of rebel activity had come in over the past week, all stemming from a single neighborhood within the area.

Finally, their team had been allowed to do something about it, with much persuading to the Lord Chancellor. They were eager to deal with the problem before the rebels moved camp and disappeared again. If they were able to catch them unawares, the less casualties there would likely be. Or so they hoped.

They split into two smaller teams, Isabeau with Galahad as per usual. Two knights moving through the area were less likely to be noticed. Lafayette and Sebastien were to patrol the area, and take out any rebels before they could alert the rest of their group.

Isabeau and her mentor had fairly little trouble infiltrating the neighborhood- even less than they expected. The rebels were spread out few and far between, and with all their skill they made quick work of getting where they thought they needed to be.

“Well this is proving far easier than I thought it would. This was supposed to be a rebel stronghold.” Isi whispered, watching as a single rebel guard walked right by the alleyway they had hidden back in.

“Don’t be so sure just yet. We have been fighting them long enough to know they are not usually so careless.” Gray replied, giving Isabeau a look. Even now it seemed she was much too eager to engage the enemy, which would no doubt start a fire fight. That was something Gray hoped to avoid.  
It was much harder to get answers from dead rebels, after all.

“It’s their loss, not ours.” Isi remained convinced these were just lazy or untrained guards, an unorganized bunch who would not even know what was coming to them. She tightened her grip on the gun she carried, and readied to move in.

“Patience, Isi.” Gray warned. They had gotten this far unnoticed, there was no reason to lose the element of surprise now.

She made a small noise of frustration, her impatience getting the better of her, but stayed where she was.

“We’re going after the mark.” Gray turned his head back and spoke quietly into the communicator on his shoulder, avoiding specifics just in case the rebels somehow managed to intercept their signals.  
Only the four of them knew their mark was a building, not any one person.

“Copy that.” Sebastien confirmed, before the communicator went quiet again.

With no other rebels in sight, Galahad finally prompted Isabeau to advance. The pair quickly approached the building in question, a two story print shop that looked rather unassuming.

Upon entering, both of them knew something was off. It was far too quiet. There were no personal effects lying around- aside from discarded posters on the floor. The place looked abandoned, for all intents and purposes. The floorboards creaked and groaned heavily with each step they took, but Galahad did not freeze. Isi moved towards the stairs in the back of the room, silently motioning to Gray that she was heading up.

He nodded, and followed her towards the stairs, puzzled when she did not immediately climb them. When he rounded the corner, it became obvious. Many of the stairs were rotted and falling apart, meaning it was very unlikely there was anyone else upstairs.

Isi did not hide the look of confusion on her face. The information they had been given on this place did not match up. The unorganized and sparse forces, no signs of any rebel stronghold or leaders…

A scream broke the silence and instantly caught their attention, though the noise was soon cut off.  
Their fingers on the trigger, the two ran to the back door, Gray nearly tripping as his heavy footfalls punched through a weak floorboard.

Just outside the door was a halfbreed, who had already transformed and was gnawing at the throat and neck of the rebel guard they’d seen earlier. It lifted its head and snarled, blood dripping from its jaws.

Gray immediately backpedaled, pushing Isi back through the door they’d just come through. He was not so lucky, and caught the brunt force of the soldier lycan as it lunged at him. The two came crashing back into the room, floorboards straining and cracking under the abuse. Gray felt the air forced from his lungs as the lycan slammed him against the nearest piece of furniture. The desk, as it was, shattered underneath him.

“Gray!” Isabeau shouted, waiting to fire until she had a clear shot. When it was clear she would not get it, she switched her firearm for a blade instead.

Galahad struggled with the lycan, pushing it back even as it sank its fangs deep into the leather gauntlet on his arm.  
“Augh!” He let out a cry as the lycan’s jaws clamped down tighter on his forearm, threatening to snap the bones in half. From the corner of his eye he saw Isi draw closer, blade ready, and drove it deep into the beast’s side.

It howled in pain, immediately releasing Gray’s arm, before retreating to the other side of the room and behind more furniture.

Gray emptied a full round from his gun at the lycan as it retreated, but only a few bullets found their mark. The others tore through weakened wood posts and the wall opposite to them.

The lycan came at them again, snarling and howling madly like some rabid creature.

As it neared, both Gray and Isi shot at it repeatedly, a concentrated effort to kill the lycan before it got to either one of them and did more damage.

It was Isi’s final shot that brought the halfbreed down, but its momentum kept it going and it barreled into the wall beside them. The impact shook dust and debris from the ceiling above them, but the two knights paid little attention with a more pressing matter at hand.  
Isabeau unsheathed her blade once more, driving it into the heart of the lycan to finish it, but before she could even remove it the whole building shook and groaned. The ceiling above them suddenly gave way, dropping most of the second floor down upon them, and taking the floor beneath them with it.

Gray only had a split second to react, throwing himself over Isi in an attempt to keep anything heavy from hitting her. It would have worked, if the floor hadn’t collapsed as well.

The two were tumbled downwards into pain and darkness, hitting the hard stone of the basement and simultaneously being buried under two floors of wood and whatever else had been in this God forsaken building.

When the thunderous roar of the collapse had settled, it took the two knights a moment to process what had occurred- after waking from a brief period of unconsciousness.

Gray sputtered and coughed, letting out a strangled moan as he tried to regain his breath. Only now did he realize that he was pinned awkwardly between heavy wooden beams and something metal beneath him- he could not tell in the dark.  
“Isi-“ He tried with a hoarse whisper, coughing again. The air was thick with dust and it would not settle. He picked his head up and felt a warm liquid slide down the side of his face in a trickle. His blood, most likely.  
“Isi!” Gray forced her name out, his tone more desperate as he continued to catch his breath but seemed unable to.

“…I am here.” Isabeau finally answered, her reply fairly quiet as her situation was comparable to Gray’s.  
“I can’t see anything, can you?”

“No. Not a damned thing.” He struggled again, fighting not only against the debris pinning him down but also the growing sense of dread within him. Isi was fine- as far as he could hear- and he was alive. What was there to be so worried about?  
He tried to convince himself they would get out of this mess together as they always have, but he could not seem to calm himself down.  
His breathing became faster and increasingly more shallow, only worsening the growing sense of panic within him.

Isi heard the change in Galahad’s breathing and grew worried. “Are you alright?” She asked, trying to keep her voice calm as she moved beneath the debris on top of her. Despite the general soreness of her entire body and a few cuts, she had a feeling she was still faring much better than Gray.

“I…think so.” Gray replied, in between gasping breaths. The cold sweat breaking out on his forehead argued otherwise but he still tried to hide his current state of mind.

“Stay where you are, I’m coming to you.” Isabeau could tell something was actually wrong. Potentially very wrong. As much as her mentor had attempted to hide it, she did not need to see him to tell he was panicking. And Galahad never panicked.

“It’s not…like I could move…” He paused to pull in a few more sharp breaths “..even if…I wanted to.” Gray was panting now, his heart beating in his chest like a wild animal against its cage.  
Each groan and scrape of settling wood had him convinced the lycan would come crawling through the wreckage and finish the both of them off-  
No. The lycan was dead. Isi had finished it off herself, he had seen her-  
“Isi, I can’t-” His breathing quickened again, the pace more erratic than ever and no matter how many breaths he took he could not fill his lungs.

“Shhh, Gray I’m here.” A final push and she managed to get the wood and other materials off of her, creating a small avalanche of debris in her wake. She moved free of it, and climbed through any free space she could towards the other knight. It took some fumbling but within a few moments she found Galahad’s hand. It was clamped tightly to a handle like protrusion on the metal object beneath him.

“I’m pinned down-” He gasped at her touch, head turning immediately towards her direction, though he still could not see her. The area around him felt even smaller, as he felt her lean over him in an attempt to push the wooden beams off of him. He had begun to hyperventilate at this point, feeling lightheaded and dizzy.

“Gray, breathe slower. Calm down.” She had wedged herself between what felt a relatively solid surface and pushed against the heavy wood that lied across Gray’s chest. A few tries later and she had to stop, more concerned that her former mentor still could not calm himself.

A cold sweat dripped freely down his forehead and dampened his hair. Worst case scenarios played over and over in his mind and no matter what he did he could not regain control of himself. Wheezing rasps escaped him again and again.

Isi focused her attention on Gray and it finally hit her. He was afraid of such small spaces. She had always wondered why he seemed mildly uncomfortable whenever they rode in an elevator, but this was different. He was trapped underneath a collapsed house, in rebel territory, and they were running out of-

“Gray. Gray. Listen to me.” She spoke calmly and with an authority that even he could not question.  
“I am going to get you out but you must calm yourself down. I will need your help to do this.” She went on, attempting to diffuse his panicked state even just a little bit.  
“I am right here. You are alright.” She reached up and after a moment of blind searching she found his head. Isi rubbed gently at the side of his face and at his temple, the movements slow and repetitive, a constant that Gray desperately needed. If she could not calm him down, he might very well use up what air they had left.  
“Just breathe. In and out. Do you hear me? In and out. Slow down.” She continued to speak, quietly, forcing Gray to listen.

Galahad’s racing mind was hardly able to grasp any one command, but with Isabeau’s repeated commands he found her voice a solid and familiar source of warmth and strength.

It took another few minutes but finally her tactics seemed to work, and Gray’s breathing de-escalated from frantic gasps to a shallow but much slower intake of air.

“I-I don’t know what came over me…” He admitted, sounding defeated.

“We are not out of this just yet. We have to get this off of you.” She refocused his attention to the beam of wood on his chest. They readied for another try, and with a combined effort on Isi’s count they managed to shift it just enough to allow gray to slip out from underneath. She helped pull him down and out, finally allowing a huge sigh of relief on her part as Gray was past the worst of it.

She held his arm tight, more affected by Gray’s panic attack than she realized, before finally attempting to contact Lafayette and Perceval. Reaching back she activated the communicator, but even after a few calls only got bits and pieces of Perceval’s reply, accompanied by static. It was not enough to discern a reply, and she cursed.

“Looks like we are on our own.” Gray leaned heavily against Isabeau, now feeling exhausted more than anything else.

“We’ve been in worse shape.” She played back at him, trying to make light of what was still a serious situation. “I’m going to try to climb up, and see if I can’t get us a bit of fresh air.” She added, moving away from Gray.

He resisted every urge to keep her there with him, but that would not get them free of the rubble. He huffed in reply, shifting his weight off and away from her.

It was slow going, still not able to see. She fumbled her way over half crushed furniture, beams, stairs, and every matter of obstacle. Isi froze when things shifted underneath her, not wanting to cause any further collapse.  
At one point her hands found the bloodied, hairy hide of the dead lycan and she instantly pushed away from it- the gasp that escaped her causing alarm in Gray.

“What is it?” He moved, picking himself up in an attempt to defend Isabeau from whatever had startled her.

“Just the lycan. But it is definitely dead.” She called back down to Gray, attempting to reorient herself in the darkness.

Suddenly the debris above them shifted. Both Isabeau and Gray braced for the impact they expected to follow, but instead they got something much different.

“Lady Igraine!” A pause. “Galahad, my friend! Are you down there?” The heavy French accent tunneled down through the wreckage, thick with worry.

“Marquis…Never have I been so happy to hear your voice.” Isabeau called back up, another sigh of relief as the Frenchman and Perceval continued to pull wood and rubble out of the way.

Gray made his way up and out, having a much easier time now that he could see where he was going. When they were both out, the two looked each other over. Both were a mess- clothes and hair alike disheveled and the whole of them covered in a layer of soot and dust.

“I leave you two alone for a couple hours and what do you do? Collapse a building on top of you-” Sebastien sighed a shook his head.  
“I hope you are both alright?” His concern was for more apparent with this question.

Isi shot a look to Gray, who simply looked up at Sebastien and nodded, not mentioning his panic attack just a little while before.  
She did not mention it, understanding why Gray did not speak of it openly. Perhaps she would ask him about it later, to see if she could help-

“Get that cut seen to. It may need stitches.” Sebastien gestured to the wound on Gray’s forehead, before ushering his group out of the area.  
Eventually they made it out of Whitechapel, and hired a carriage to take them the rest of the way back to the palace.  
This whole ordeal had turned much more complicated than expected, with bad information and lycans in the area…  
But that could wait. For now he sat back and watched Lafayette tease Isabeau about coming to her rescue, as Gray leaned against the inside of the door and slowly fell asleep.


End file.
